Hooten and The Lady filmed in South Africa

Red Planet Pictures filmed British drama Hooten and The Lady largely in South Africa to tell the story of the adventures of an American treasure hunter and his historian companion.

Filming also took place in locations as varied as Cambodia, Moscow and London, but the production was primarily based in Cape Town, shooting across South Africa for around 100 days with service company Out of Africa.

The country doubled for the likes of Russia, the Caribbean, the Amazon and Bhutan, while an adapted studio space was used in an industrial area outside Cape Town.

A tight filming schedule was one of the central challenges, especially as the production team moved around a lot and sometimes had to find a way into less accessible locations.

“We had camels, horses, snakes and scorpions in various episodes,” said Out of Africa's Lynne-Anne Vosloo to KFTV. “Animals can be unpredictable and camels can be very bad-tempered.

“Due to a bush fire near one of our locations doubling for Ethiopia, the place had to be abandoned and a replacement found at the last minute. This was particularly challenging because not only did the location have a very specific look but a lot of time and effort had gone into planning a big stunt rig. But none of these challenges was too big for our amazing crew and cast, who took each day in their stride.”

One episode is set in Italy and the team filmed in the European country for a week to shoot locations that could not be easily doubled in South Africa.

“However, we used the University of Cape Town for Rome exteriors and interiors such as the Vatican library,” Vosloo added.

“We created a hotel lobby and bedroom in Rome in a disused [South African] bank that had suitable architecture and we created a Roman excavation site in the Huguenot Tunnel about 45 minutes from Cape Town.”

South Africa is a popular international filming location as it offers a warm climate, rugged terrain and cosmopolitan cities that can double for countries around the world, particularly parts of east Asia that are otherwise more of a logistical challenge.